Gauge guide for sewing machine



g- 2, 1955 I D. LE BOVIT 2,714,361

GAUGE GUIDE FOR SEWING MACHINE Filed Nov. 27, 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG.2.

1N VENTOR 1955 D. LE BOVlT 2,714,361

GAUGE GUIDE FOR SEWING MACHINE Filed Nov. 27, 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR Aug. 2, 1955 D. LE Bovrr 2,714,361

GAUGE GUIDE FOR SEWING MACHINE Filed Nov. 27, 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 4a H VIII/III)?! '27 I4 I5 '6 47 1N VENTOR United States Patent GAUGE GUIDE FOR SEWING MACHINE David Le Bovit, Newark, N. J. pplication Novemb r 27, .19 3, Serial No. 394,733 4 Claims. (Cl. 112 -451) This invention relates to a gauge guide device for sewing machine.

An object of the invention is to provide an easy and accurate means for determining the depth of a stitch or stitches from the end of the material being hemmed.

Another object of this invention is to provide a gauge guide device which is mounted to the sewing machine by a screw passing through the head of the sewing ma- ,chine.

The device herein disclosed embodies a combined horizontal gauge and guide support with a holder for bracket arm of the guide for quick adjustment of the guide.

Another object of this invention is to provide a gauge guide which can be mounted on difierent makes of sewing machines without alterations to either the machine or device.

With the above and other objects in view my invention consists in the combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter disclosed in the drawings and specification, and then more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a back view of a sewing machine showing the position the gauge device is fastened to said machine.

Fig. 2 is a front view of a sewing machine showing how this invention looks like from operators side of machine.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the invention showing the gauge foot and gauge as it is in operating position.

Fig. 4 is a side plan view showing how gauge foot may be pushed up out of operating position.

Fig. 5 is a front plan view.

Fig. 6 is a top plan view taken along line 6-6 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 7 is an elevation view taken along line 77 of Fig. 5.

Fig. 8 is an elevation view taken along line 88 of Fig. 6.

Fig. 9 is an elevation view taken along line 99 of Fig. 6.

Fig. 10 is a front plan view of a presser foot.

Fig. ll is a side plan view of a presser foot.

In all the above described views like characters of reference are employed to designate like parts throughout.

Referring more particular to Figure 1 of the drawings, 10 designates a conventional sewing machine head having a presser foot lifter bolt 11 which passes through the head and to which is fastened a gauge guide bracket 12. The bracket 12 holds a gauge guide device 13 in place on the sewing machine. A gauge guide bar 14 is rotatably journaled through the bracket 12 and is retained against axial displacement therewith by a horse-shoe type lock ring 15, as best seen in Figure 6. The bar 14 carries thereover a slide block 16 to which is secured a guide foot arm 17 having a guide foot 18 at its free end. An adjusting screw 19 or threaded shaft is threadedly received through one end of the bar 14, as best seen in Figure 6, and this screw or shaft 19 also passes through and is received by complemental threads in the slide block 16. This constitutes a drive similar to a worm and block drive for advancing the block over the bar. An elevating or lift arm 28, best shown. in Figures 1 and 3 is also secured to the bar 14 and is: attached thereto by screws 20.

The gauge guide device lifting mechanism may consist for example of an L shaped member 21 secured to the gauge guide lifting lever 23 as by a screw 22. A second L shaped member 24 is secured to the first L shaped member and locked in place by a nut 25. The member 24 is so positioned that upon rocking of the lever arm 23 at the discretion of the machine operator the member 24 is placed in such a position that it will tilt the guide foot arm 17 and foot 18 lifting the gauge guide foot 18 from the material and working surface. An adjusting screw 32 is provided to preserve parallelism between the guide foot 13 and the gauge foot 18.

The slide bar 14 has graduations 30 on both its front and top surfaces. The graduations 30 are spaced at different intervals thus enabling the operator to set the guide foot at a specified distance from the presser foot of the machine.

As shown in Figures 5 and 6, by loosening set screw 29, the slide block 16 may be moved by rotating the adjusting screw 19 to whatever desired depth of stitch is required according to the graduations on slide bar 14. Set screw 32 locks the guide foot arm 17 in place. Slide bar 14 is supported by support member 12 which is attached to the machine head 10. The slide bar 14 is retained in place holding block 12 by means of a washer 47 and a horseshoe lock-ring 15 which fits into a groove 48 in the bar 14. The slide bar 14 engages slide block 16 through a horizontal opening 33 and the adjusting screw 19 engages the block 16 through a threaded opening 34 as best seen in Figure 7. The guide foot arm 17 engages block 16 through a vertical opening 35. Set screw 29 is located below slide bar 14 and engages slide block 16 at the threaded portion 36 thereof. It will be noted that slide block 16 has a slotted opening 37, below opening 33, which engages slide bar 14. The slot 37 is for the purpose of adjusting the slide block 16 on guide bar 14 without marring the graduations 30.

The guide foot arm 17 is locked in place when pushed up out of the way as shown in dotted lines in Figure 4 by employing a pin 38 on which is mounted a ring 45, the pin 38 passing through opening 42 and 41 engaging a notch 40 in the end of the slide bar 14 which passes through holding block 12 as best seen in Figure 8. The pin 38 is held in the notch 40 by a spring 43 which bears against a plug 46 threaded in the holder 12. The plug 46 has a hole 47 in it to allow pin 38 to slip back and forth. To prevent the slide bar 14 sliding out of holder 12, the bar 14 has a groove 48 into which a horseshoe ring-lock is inserted. The ring-lock is placed along side washer 47, that is next to holder 12.

The presser foot 49 has a smaller foot 52 attached to it by means of a screw 53 on which is a spring 54. This spring 54 applies pressure on foot 52 against foot 49 and screw head 53 to keep the smaller foot 52 engaged in slot 55. If the operator does not Wish to use the smaller foot 52 he simply presses the screw 53 in toward foot 49 until foot 52 is disengaged, then by pressing screw 53 he can move the foot 52 up and out of position until it engages slot 55. The operator then releases the screw 53 and the spring 54 will cause the foot 52 to lock itself in slot 55.

In operation, when the gauge guide device is applied to the conventional sewing machine in a manner shown in Figures 1 through 3 the machine operator first determines the depth the stitch is to be from the edge of the material and this distance is set into the device by loosening the set screws 29 and 32 and sliding the block 16 along the bar 14 until the desired graduation is attained. At this time the screws 29, 32 are tightened and the operator is now ready to feed the material into the presser foot. In order to do this the presser foot or gauge foot and arm 17 must be elevated slightly. This is attained by rocking the lever 23, as by pulling down on the left hand end thereof. This will elevate the gauge guide bar 14, slide block 16, arms 17 and foot 18 by reason of rotation of the fixed end of the bar 14 in the support 12 as best seen in Figure 6. The material is then fed into the presser foot with its edge in contact with the smooth edge of the guide foot 18. The guide foot is permitted to descend and all material fed through is then maintained in sliding contact with the foot 18. If at any point in the stitching it is desired to either increase or decrease the depth of stitch from the edge of the material the slide block 16 may be moved over the bar 14 to whatever desired graduation is to be employed.

The slide block 16 of course is propelled along the bar 14 after loosening of the set screws 29, 32 extending through bracket 12 and contacting the stationary head of the sewing machine as by rotating the threaded shaft 19 until the block 16 overlies the selected graduation and to bring the two feet into lateral alignment.

Although I have shown but one form of the invention I reserve the right to all modifications falling within the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. For use with a sewing machine having a presser foot, a gauge guide device comprising a mounting member adapted to be secured to said sewing machine, a guide bar carried by said'mounting member, a guide foot carried by said guide bar and positioned to lie substantially parallel to said presser foot, said guide bar having a cylindrical portion adjacent one end thereof mounted for rotation in said mounting member and having a plurality of circumferentially spaced, shallow, concavely-curved depressions in the cylindrical contour thereof, and spring-urged detent means receivable in said mounting member and selectively engageable in any of said depressions and disengageable from said depressions by rotation of said guide bar to cam said detent means up along the shallow concave curve of said depressions, said detent means maintaining said guide bar in any of a plurality of positions of angular adjustment and maintaining said guide foot in any of a plurality of positions of elevational adjustment relative to said presser foot.

2. The invention of claim 1, and a slide block receivable on said side bar and carrying said guide foot, said guide bar being polygonal and having indicia on two adjacent sides thereof for indicating the lateral spacing of said guide foot, the indicia on one said side being disposed in alternation with the indicia on the other said side of said guide bar so that the indicia on either said side are more widely spaced apart than if all said indicia were on a single side of said polygonal guide bar.

3. The invention of claim 1, said mounting member being mounted for limited pivotal movement on a stationary portion of said sewing machine, and means car- ,ried by said mounting member and contacting said stationary portion to eifect limited pivotal adjustment of said mounting member relative to said stationary por-y tion to align said guide foot with said presser foot.

4. The invention of claim 1, in which said mounting member is mounted on a stationary portion of said sew"- ing machine, and means movably mounted on said sew ing machine and contacting a portion of said guide bar to rotate said guide bar relative to said mounting mem her and change the position of elevational adjustment of said guide foot relative to said presser foot.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 145,841 Buschmeier Dec. 23, 1873 1,009,324 Littlefield et al. Nov. 21, 1911 1,014,283 Brown Jan. 9, 1912 1,087,601 Morris Feb. 17, 1914 1,487,418 Witkus Mar. 18, 1924 2,411,102 Morabito Nov. 12, 1946 2,479,371 Kite Aug. 16, 1949 2,520,415 Le Bovit Aug. 29, 1950 2,657,655 Margand Nov. 3, 1953 

